Train-operated railway-gate



M. STRELCHIK. TRAIN OPERATED RAILWAY GATE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 10. 1919.

5 SHEETS-SHEET I.

Patented Aug. 17, 1920.

V M f M T T A M. STRELCHIK.

TRAIN OPERATED RAILWAY GATE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY10,I9I9.

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ATTORNEY M. STRELCHIKL TRMN OPERATED RAILWAY GATE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 10. 191's.

Patented Aug. 17, 1920.

5 SHEETSSHEET 3.

IN VEN TOR 87 f; j ATTORNEY M. STRELCHIK.

TRAIN OPERATED RAILWAY GATE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 10, IBIS.

Patented Aug. 17 1920.

5 SHEETSSHEET 4.

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APPLICATION FILED JULY 10, 1919.

Patented Aug. 17, 1920.

5 SHEETSSHEET 5.

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. To all whom it may concern UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TRAIN-OPERATED RAILWAY-GATE.

Specification of Letters latent.

Patented Aug. 17, 1920;

' Application filed July 10, 1919. Serial No. 309,928.

Be it known that I, MICHAEL STRELOHIK, a. citizen of Hungary, and a resident of Glenfield, in the county of Lewis and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Train Operated Railway-Grates, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to train-operated railway gates, that is to say to crossing gates which are closed by the approach of a tramtoward the crossing and opened by the train as it passes beyond the crossing.

The main object of the invention is to provide a mechanism of the character mentioned, which is simple in construction and entirely automatic in operation.

A further object of the invention is to so devise themechanism that it can be conveniently installed on already existingtracks, more particularly without necessitating material changes in the construction of the latter.

A still further object of the invention is to so construct the operating mechanism,

thereof, with that it can be made use of inconnection with single-track railways and also with multiple-track roads. 7

With these and other objects in View, which will more fully appear as the nature of the invention is better understood, the same consists in the combination, arrangement and construction of parts hereinafterdescribed, pointed out in the appended claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it being understood that many changes may be made in the size and proportion of the several parts and details of construction within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

One of the many possible embodiments of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 isa plan view of a railroad track with the gate-operating. mechanism, constructed'in accordance with the present invention, in position thereon; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the mechanism, with the gate in open-position; Fig. 3 is a similar elevation the gate in closed position; Fig. 4 ,is aside elevation of the gate closing device; Fig. 5 is a section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 4; Fig. 7 is a side elevation of the gate closing mechanism, showing the elements in the positions which they occupy when acted upon by the wheelsof the car trucks; Fig. .8 is a front elevation of the gate and part of the operating mechanlsm connected therewith; Fig. 9 is a plan view thereof; Fig. 10 is a plan view of the gate opening mechanism; Fig. 11 is a section taken on line 11-11 of Fig. 10; and Fig. 12 is a section taken on line 1212 of Fig. 10.

In the drawings, the numeral 20 indicates a railroad track, its rails 21 being laid on cross-ties or sleepers (not shown). A gatepost 22 (see Figs. 8 and 9) is fixed at the orossing 23 in the ground, and to this post is pivoted at 24 a mast-gate 25, having a weight 26 on its butt-end of. suflicient size to swing the gate into open position, when released. A dash-pot 27 is associated with the gate. to prevent a too sudden opening and closing thereof. This dash-pot may be of any suitable construction, a further description of which seems to be unnecessary, as it does not form part of the present in vention. To the gate is pivoted at 28 an actuating bar 29, the other end of which is pivotally connected at 30 with a lever 31, the latter being fixed to a shaft This shaft is journaled in hanger bearings 33, which depend from one ofthe rails adjacent the crossing. To the shaft is keyed, or otherwise rigidly attached, a pulley 34, which. in rotating in the direction of the arrow shown adjacent the same in Fig. 8 of the drawings, causes the gate to swing to closing position. v

The gate closing mechanism,'connected with the pulley 34, is disposed a suitable distance in front of the crossing 23, it being disposed within a casing 35, which is set in an excavation formed in the road bed. Into this casing extend two hangers 36, which are mounted upon the base flanges 37 of the rails and connected by a tie rod 38. This tie rod extends through forwardly inclined slots 39 in track-trips 40, the heads 41 of which are disposed adjacent to and in the level of the heads 42 of the rails, projecting thence substantially vertically downward and being connected by transverse tie rods 43, 44 and 45. A ing the tie rods 38 and 45, has a tendency to hold the track-trips in their raised positions. A stop bar 47, connecting the hanglVith' the track-trips coeperates a locking ers 36 in rear of the track-trips, limits the movement of the latter, as will hereinafter appear. The pulley 34, above referred to, is connected with the track-trips by a ca-. ble 48, one end of which is secured to the tierod 45, while its other end is fastened to the said pulley. The cable runs over sheaves 49 and 50, carried by'shafts 51- and 52,. respectively, the said shafts being mounted on hangers 53, that project from the rails into the casing 35. Into the cable 48 is inserted-a spring 48'.

device, including two arms 54, that are oscillatably mounted upon the shaft51 and conn'ected by tie bars 55 and 56, the tie bar 55 being disposed adjacent the free ends of the said arms, and the tie-bar 56 intermediate the ends thereof. In proximity of the tie-' bar 55 each arm 54 is provided with a notch 57, that is adapted to receive the tie-bar 44 on the track-trips, when the latterswing in thedirection of the arrow shown in Fig. 4

of-tlie drawings into'the position shown in Fig. 7, thereby locking said trips in such positions. Springs 58, connected to the tie bars 45 and 56, cause the arms 54 to move to lockingpositions, when the track-trips are shifted, as above mentioned.

, The gateopening and track-trip unlocking mechanism is disposed a suitable distance in rear of the crossing, and comprises two depressible rails 59, each of a length thatis somewhat greater than the distance between any two adjacent wheel pairs of a trailn These rails project a short distance above the treads of the rails 21, so as to be engaged by the wheels of the trucks and depressed thereby. The two rails 59 are suitably connected by'tie-bars 60, some 01 which rest upon spring-pressed vertically movable studs 61, which have a tendency to hold the depressible rails in their ele-' vated positions. Some of the tie-bars 60 bear alsoagainst bell-crank levers 62, which are fulcrumed at 63 to brackets 64, the latter. depending from the rails. Thefree ends of the said tulcrumed levers are connected by a link 65. The front bell-crank lever is connected by a. cable 66 with one arm of a bell-crank lever 67, that is fulerumed to the tie-bar 38[between the hangers 36. To the other arm of the bell-crank lever 67 i'spivoted at 68 a link 69, having a longitudinal slot'ZO, in which isseated the tie bar-"55,

connecting the varms 54 of the track-trip locking devices. A spring 71 is connected to thebell-cra'nk lever 67 and to the tie-bar 44,. connecting the track-trips'40. Thefrontbell-c'ranklevefr 62 is also connected by a cable 72 with'thepulley 34, in the said cable being interposed a spring. 73,. for a purpose hereinafter to be described.

The operation of this device is as fol} lows :When the gate is in its open posithereby closing the gate 25.

Simultaneously with the operation de-i tion, the track-trips and the elements con-' nected therewith are in the positions shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings. The train runs in the direction of the arrow shown in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive, and, as the front wheels of the locomotive travel over the trips, the latter are first depressed as far as the slots '39 therein will permit, and then swung around the tie bar 38 in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 4 of the'drawings, as far as the stop 4'? permits,"-thereby occupying the positions shown in Fig. 7 of the drawings. The locking members 54 slide on the tie-bar 44 downward, thespring 58 causing their notches 57 to engage with the tie-bar 44,- whereby the trips are held in locked positions. As the trips are tilted, the cable 48 is shifted, causing the pulley 34 to move in the direction of the arrow shown in" Fig. 8 of the drawings, which, in turn,

shifts the lever 31 andthe actuatingbar 29,-

scribechthe tie-bar 55 011 the locking arms 54 is caused to abut against the lower end of the slot 70 in the link69, whereby the.

bell-crank lever 67 is shifted in the direcs tion of the arrow' shown adjacent the same in Fig. 4 of the drawings. By this operation, the heads 62 of the bell-crank levers 62 are caused to abut againstthe tie-bars 60 on the depressible rails 59. i hen the first wheelpair of the locomotive depresses the rails 59, the bell-crank levers 62 move in the-directionof the arrows shown in Fig. 11 ofthe drawings, exerting,

shown in F igj 8 of the drawings. This movement cannot take place until the. last wheel pair has been disengaged from the ralls 59; When tlns-occurs, thespring's' of the studs. 61 returnthe rails-59 50 1111611. ele vated positions fand'the' weight 26 on the gate 25-swings the latter around itspivot 24 {into open position, -returning the pulley 34 to normal position (Fig. 8);. The springs 48 "-and' 73 are inserted into'the cables-48 and 72, respectively,

' j H o -take up the slack in 1 the cables during the operationsdescribed.

In case a train travels on thetrac'kain a direction opposite to the normal trafiic, the traclr trips would move up and down cont1nuously,-as farasthe slots 39 therein per! mit. To prevent this, depressible rails 74 are mounted in rear of the track-trips, said rails being each of a length that is somewhat greater than the distance between any two adj accnt wheel pairs of the train, they being held n their elevated positions, in which they project above the rail heads, by springpresscd slides 75. A spring-pressed slide 76 bears against a tie-bar 77, connecting the depressible rails 7%, said last-mentioned slide being pivoted at 78 to a bell-crank lever 79, the latter being fulcrumed at 80 to a hanger 81, that is supported by the rails 21. T o the bell-crank lever 7 9 is pivoted a link 82, the other end of which is pivoted at 83 to an actuating lever 8 L, the latter being oscillatable upon the shaft 51 and of a length that permits its free end to engage the tie-bar 45 on the track-trips 40. It a train travels from the crossing toward the track-trips, the first pair of locomotive wheels depresses the rails 74, which, by the con ections mentioned, shift the track-trips downward as far as the slots 39 permit. These trips are held in their lower positions until the last pair of wheels has passed over the depressible rails T l, when the said rails are brought back by the springs on the slides thereon to their normal postions, the track-trips being raised by the spring 46.

The device herein described is designed for railroad tracks, on which trains normally travel in a given direction. Normally, oi course, there are two gates at a crossing, both of which may be actuated by the device hereindescribed, they being connected each by an actuating bar 29 and lever 31 with the shaft 32.

In case of a single-track railroad, whereon trains travel in both directions, obviously, on each side of the gate there must be provided a gate closing mechanism and a gate- 7 opening device.

The cables connecting the elements of the device may be led in closed channels or on posts, to insure their proper operation. As this feature is not new and no claim is made thereto, illustration of the same seems to be unnecessary.

With the gate may be associated an audible signal, such as a bell. This bell, denoted in the drawings by the numeral 85, is mounted upon the gate post 22, and adjacent the said bell is rotatably carried by the said gate post a pinion 86, from the face of which protrude pins 87, adapted to cooperate with the hamers 88 of the bell. The pinion meshes with a gear 89, that moves with the gate 25 around its pivot 24. As the gate swings into closing or opening position, the gear 89 turns the pinion S6, and the latter actuates the bell hammers.

hat I claim is 1. In a train-operated railway gate, the combination with a post, of a gravity opened gate hinged thereto, a rotatable member, an actuating bar pivoted to said rotatable member and said gate, track-trips in front of said gate, a connection between said tracktrips and said rotatable member, trip looking means movable with said track-trips, depressible members in rear of said gate, a connection between said depressible members and said rotatable member, means in engagement withsaid locking member for disengaging the same from said trips, a connection between said depressible members and said last-mentioned means, depressible members in rear of said trips, and means actuated by said last-mentioned depressible members for causing said trips to move out of the path of the wheels of a train moving from said gate toward said track-trips.

2. In a train-operated railway gate, the combination with a post, of a gravity opened gate hinged thereto, a rotatable member, an actuating bar pivoted to said rotatable member and said gate, track-trips in front of said gate, a connection between said tracktrips and said rotatable member, trip looking means movable with said track-trips, depressible members in rear of said gate, a connection between said depressible members and said rotatable member, means in engagement with said locking member for disengaging the same from said trips, a connection between said depressible members and said last-mentioned means, depressible members in rear of said trips, and means actuated by said last-mentioned depressible members for causing said trips to move out of the path of the wheels of a train moving from said gate toward. said track trips, said last-mentioned depressible members being each of a length that is greater than the distance between any adjacent two pairs of wheels of a train running on the track associated with said gate.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 16th day of June, A. D. 1919.

MICHAEL STRELCHIK. 

